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The Story of Garfield 



by 
EDGAR L. VINCENT 

Author of " Margaret Bowlby," etc. 




1908 

L. H. Nelson Company 

Portland, IVIaine 



Library ot ooN«it.£s3 

I (wo CoplM Kecei'^ 

APR 13 190B 
1 vDnyimi'^ ciiuii 




MESSAGE OF THE STORY OF GARFIELD 

^^ HE Storv of Garfield comes as a message of hope and 
\m inspiration to every youth of the land. To him who 
is struggling against adverse circumstances, it brings the 
cheering assurance that honest purpose, backed up by taith- 
tul endeavor and patient effort, will win against all odds. 
For the one who is more favorably situated, but who must 
yet work out his own fortune, the storv speaks in the same 
certain tones. Victory will come to those who are willing 
to strive earnestlv for it. 



COPYRIGHT. Um. BY L. H. NELSONICO. 





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The Story of Garfield 




'N the fourth day of March, 1881, a man who had just 
leen inaugurated President of the United States, 
standing on the beautiful east front of the Capitol 
at Washington, stooped and kissed his aged mother, 
who had been sitting close beside him while he made 
what was the greatest address of his life. Thirty 
years or a little more before that, the same man, then 
a lad ot sixteen, was trudging wearily along the tow- 
path of a canal in the State of Ohio. 

From tow-path to President! Thinking ol it now, what a long, long way 
that seems! But to a lad who possesses the spirit of James A. Garfield, it is 
only the working out ot a plan by natural methods. In this great country of 
ours wonderful things happen, and the study of the lives of great men often 
leads us back through the years to very lowly places. Something about the 
atmosphere of the humble homes ot the poor seems calculated to bring out all 
that is strongest and best in lite. 



THE S I () \i\ OF GARFIELD 

In our study of geography, we always trace the river back to its source. 
We enjoy wandering through green fields and shady forests where the tangled 
undergrowth lies thick all about us, until we come to the spring fed by the 
mountain storms, where the stream begins. So it is a charming and a fascina- 
ting thing to go back through the lanes of life anci find the fountain which fed 
the early bo\hood of those who have left their mark on the world's history. 

And to find the source of the two streams which, after flowing through 
many a pleasant dell and shady nook at last mingled their crystal waters in the 
life of James A. Garfield, we must journey through the years until we come to 
a log cabin in what was then the "far west" country of northern Ohio. In 
that little c^uiitrv " clearinu;," chopped out of the wilderness, Abram Garfield 
hewed with his own hands the logs which were atterward rolletl up to make the 
hi>me in which the tutiire President was first to see the light ot d^\ 




Until we come to a log cabin in what was then tlic ' tar west ' country ot nortliern Ohio ' 



THE S r O R Y U F GARFIELD 

It we wish to trace the family stream farther back, — and that is always full 
ot interest, — we must study musty and scanty records until we come to the story 
which tells ot the towering form of Edward (jarfield, who was among the one 
hundred and six men that came with Governor W'inthrop' to the shores ot 
Massachusetts in i6]c;, and became the proprietor of one ot the first homes 
ever set up on American soil. Either of Saxon or Welsh descent, this stalwart 
man lived to the ripe okl age of ninety-seven. Some of the descendants of this 
good old patriarch struck mighty blows for the lite and preservation ot the land 
of their adoption. CJne son ot Edward was a captain in the war with the In- 
dians. Following on until we come to the sixth in that line we find one Solomon 
Garfield ; and he was the great-grandtather ot the man about whom we are novy 
studying. We are told that Solomon had in him the stutf' of which pioneers 
are made. We follow him until he comes to a little clearing on the west side 
of the Hudson River, in what might well be called the "wilderness" ot New 
York, where he carveti the beginnings of the town ot Worcester. 

Then, in order to get a better knowledge of the mother ot young Gartield, 
we must push oin- way once more back into the down-east country ot Rhode 
Island. Among the Huguenot tugitives who fled trom France because they 
were not permitted to worship God according to ways that seemed to them right 
and true and just, was one Maturin Ballou. For several generatit)ns the Ballou 
tamily lived, at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, rejoicing in the religious treedom 
which had been purchased for them by the sacrilices of their paternal ancestor 
anci doing their part towarci building up the new land to which they had come. 
Some of the family followed the westward trend of civilization and settled lirst 
in a forest home in New Hampshire and then drifted still farther toward the 
settine; sun. Among these was one who took with him a boy named James 
Ballou; and this was the father of President Garfield's mother. In early man- 
hood this James Ballou united his heart and hand with that of Mehitabel Ingalls: 
and they, on the iist of September, i Soi, tirst looked into the laughing eyes of 
her who in due time was known as Eliza Ballou, the dear motherly old lady 
upon whose cheek of softest velvet President Garfield left that kiss almost eighty 
years afterward at W^ashington. 



THE S 1 O R Y OF GARFIELD 

Who knows how it was that when Grandma Garfield was onlv eight years 
old, her mother, left alone to battle w ith the world, took her tour little ones 
and journeyed away to the westward until she came to the new settlement of 
Worcester, the very place where the Garfield's at that time lived? Can we 
doubt that a Guiding Hand had been leading them all the way along? Here 
Eliza Ballou and the boy Abram Garfield played together as many as five years. 
Had anyone told Eliza then that this lad would some day be her lover, would 
she not have blushed rosy red and stoutly declared that such a thing could not 
be ? But the time came when fortune brought the two together once more, after 
a separation of a few years, still farther in the heart ot the new country beyond 
the border-lands of Ohio. There, in the comfortable house ot logs which the 
two built up after their marriatre, on the 19th of November, iHji, James A. 
Garfield was born. 




THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



A Sapling in the Woods 



THAT is what the tather of young Garfield called him, when at the age of 
thirty-three, the stout young pioneer died an untimely death. " I have 
brought you these four young saplings, Eliza ! " he said. " Do the best 
you can to take care ot them ! " And who could say that she failed in her trust? 
She had before her a grave problem. In debt, four little ones and alone. Some 
of the neighbors thought the widow should let the children be "bound out," 
thus giving her a better chance to maintain herself. But with a spirit worthy 
the bravest of her ancestors she said, " As long as I live and can work, the 
children shall be mine ! " Fitty ot the eighty acres of land were sold, the mort- 
gage cleared up and the real struggle with the world began. With her own 
hands Mrs. Garfield split rails for fences on the farm — for the oldest child of 
the family was only eleven, and a daughter at that, while James was but eighteen 
months of age. She worked at sewing for the shoemaker of the neighborhood, 
to pay for boots and shoes for the Garfield boys and girls. She did many 
kinds of out-of-door work on the farm, besides carding the wool and weaving 
the coarse cloth with which her little ones were clad. More than that she did. 
She gave a little corner of her farm on which to build a schoolhouse, and worked 
all she could to help in its erection. In this poor little log cabin of a school- 
house, James, not much more than three years old, learned his letters. Before 
the first year came to an end, he had won a little Testament offered as a prize 
to the best reader in his class. It was here, too, that he gained all he knew of 
reading, spelling and arithmetic, then deemed to be about all that a lad should 
know in order to be fully equipped for the life of a farmer boy. 



THE SrORY OF GARFIELD 

But somehow it seemed to the rest of the family that James had in him 
the making of a scholar. The kind and fatherly lad, Thomas, though only 
eight years older than James, seconded the efforts ot his mother to give the boy 
as good an education as possible. 

"James ought to go to school. Mother!" he said, with a sjiirit ot selt- 
sacrifice almost pathetic to think about. " I will stay at home and work, but 
he gets along so well with his books we ought to give hnn a chance." 

But how limited were the resources at the boy's command I No splendid 
libraries from whicli to ciraw books. No presses turnmg out papers and maga- 
zines in a flood as we have to-day. No, the English Reader, Webster's Spelling 
Book and a few volumes like them constituted the sum total of the literature 
ot that (juiet country home. But James delighted in such as he had. The 
spelling book he had almost by heart when he was eight, and in the years of 
manhooci he could repeat more than one page from the English Reader, stored 
in memory so long ago. And there was one other book young Garfield came 
very early to love, and that was the Bible. From his mother he inherited a 
deep love and reverence for the word of God. She not only spent much time 
reading the liook to her chikiren but on Sunday she regularly walked with 
them to the little Disciple meeting-house, three miles distant, to attend preach- 
ing service. All through his life the precepts taught him in those early vears 
clung to the man, and it cannot be ijuestioned that to this training he owed 
much ot the deep religious sentiment which underhu' his actions. 

So It went on until the boy was fifteen years old. I'hen he went away to 
work tor neighboring farmers, recei\'ing almost as much as a man, tor he was 
strong and active. l^'or a rime he worked at burning; logs ot wooil to get 
the ashes, an occiqiation w hich rook the time of man\' in those days w ho made 
" burning salts" ipiite profitable. Mone\ was scarce, ami one season when he 
worked away at haying he received a young colt in paymcnr tor his labor, and 
this he led away home to swell the stock of the tiirm. All he earned was con- 
scientiously brought home to Mother. One winter he chopped one huiulred 
cords ot tour-foot wood, for twenty-five cents a cord, some days cutting two 
cords, antl so earnin^ half a dollar. 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 

Then came the opportunity to drive horses on the canal. Young Garfield 
was now sixteen years of age, a stout and daring lad, ready for anything and 
everything that might come in his way. He intended to go on the lake as a 
hand before the mast, and from there out on the ocean. To his boyish mind 
the canal was to be the primary school, the lake-ship the academy and the ocean 
vessel the college where he might get his education. 

Ten dollars a month and his board, this rough work on the canal paid, 
and Garfield went at it with a will. He would make the best he could out of 
it, and he learned not simply to drive the horses, but a chance came to him to 
master the art of steering, an art which he put to such good use in later days 
that once, while in the army of his country, he stood at the wheel of a boat on 
the Ohio river for forty-four hours at a stretch and saved the craft from destruc- 
tion when no other hand was lifted to do it. 




'Then came the opportunity to drive horses on the canal " 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



The Sapling Transplanted 



BUT better things than being a dnver-boy on the canal were in store tor 
Garfield. He found this out in the wav man\' important lessons are 
learned, the way of suffering. 
He contracted a fever which sent hini back home delirious. There his 
good mother cared for him tor ti\e months. In those fi\"e months new and 
broader aspects of life came to him, so that when he was able once more to go 
out to battle with fate, he no longer thought of the canal, the lake and the sea, 
but his heart had been set upon taking a course ot schooling in Geauga Academy 
at Chester, Ohio. Here we find him digging away at his books tor four terms, 
teaching winters and working as a month hand during the summer vacation. 
Then came a chance to attend the new college at Hiram, Ohio. 'Hiree years 
passed here, when the wav opened tor a course at Williams College. From 
this school he yrailuateti with such high honors that he was soon atter- 

ward called to the chair 
of Latin and Greek in 
Hiram College. From 
this position he quick- 
ly rose to that o f 
President ot the same 
institution. Then into 
the stream ot his lite 
a new force came, aiul 
that torce swept on 
its course until it car- 
ried Garfield out upt)n 

the sea ot matrimonv. 

' The new colleee at Hiram, Ohio " ii.i ^ i 

" • W hen the v o u n g 

12 




THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



man first went to the Seminary 
at Geauga, he made the ac- 
quaintance of a modest and 
studious girl named Lucretia 
Rudolph. Together the two 
had read and studied, forming 
a companionship which had 
lasted ever since : and when 
Garfield returned to Hiram 
College and began his work 
there, among the pupils he 
found this same earnest young 
lady whom he had known at 
Geauga. She now became his 
pupil in Latin, Greek and 
geometry. A little later this 
relationship deepened, and on 
the nth of November, 1858, 
the two were married. The 
union proved to be an ideal 
one. Mrs. Garfield was ever a most sympathetic helpmate. In every way pos- 
sible she encouraged him to develop to the highest degree the powers with which 
he had been endowed. The little college felt the influence of her character, as 
well as it did the strength of her husband, and sprang to a position never 
before known. 

But Garfield was not simply a student of books. He read human life as 
he found it written in the everyday actions of men. It was not strange that 
he should be led to give much thought to the question of slavery, which at 
that time was one of absorbing interest to the entire country. Neither is it to 
be wondered at that the people should come to understand that in him they 
might have a strong, fearless and incorruptible representative in the halls of 
legislation. And to such a place did they elect him in the fall of 1859, when 
he was chosen to be senator from the district in which he lived. 




" Mrs. Garfield was ever a most sympathetic helpmate " 



13 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



Wearing the Blue 



AT the ai);e of twenty-eight Garfield took his place in the upper house of 
the legislature of the State of Ohio, and here we note the same careful 
and painstaking attention to details which had so characterized him in 
every field of labor. 

While still serving in this capacity the shadow of the Civil War settled 
over the country. The young man speedily took his place on the side of tree- 
dom for the slave and advocated the presersation of the Union. From making 
vigorous speeches in favor of the Federal L'nion and working tor the movement 
to raise a State miHtia of 6,000 men, it was hut a step tor him to leave the c|uiet 
field of studv as he found it at Hiram College, and the stirring arena of the State 

legislature, and enter 
^i upon the work ot 

raising a liodv of 
recruits for one of 
the first regiments 
mustered into the 
s e 1- %• i c e of the 
National Cio\e r n - 
ment from Ohio. 
Nor was it an un- 
natural thing that 
he s h o u Id he 
CO m m I ssi oned in 




House of the Legislature of the State of Ohio " 



•4 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



August, 1 86 1, as Lieutenant-Colonel ; nor that the still greater honor of being 
promoted to Colonel should be accorded to him. In fact, this was but the 
natural recognition of his services in making strong the forces of his country 
against the storm of rebellion soon to rage with tury over the Southland. It 
was on the 17th of December, 1861, that the young Colonel marched away 
with his regiment to the front, reporting to General Buell, in Louisville, for 
immediate duty. 

A picture of him taken in his uniform of Colonel shows him to be what 
he in truth was, a strong, athletic, sturdy man, with the will of a giant and the 
courage of one ot the Vikings of old. 

It will not do to linger too long on the part of Garfield's story which tells 
about his bravery and wisdom as a soldier. We can not follow him all the 
way from muster-in to promotion — the grand day which advanced him to a 
proud position in the council of the nation at Washington — for that would take 
too long ; but we may tarry long enough to speak of the hand-to-hand fight 
of Garfield and his eleven hundred men fresh from the farms and the shops 
of the north with Zollicoffer in Kentucky, when the Colonel won the State of 
Kentucky for the Union. The State was wavering between an avowal on the 
side of rebellion and continued allegiance to the Union. The eastern part of 
the State was already suffering from an invasion by the confederate troops. It 
was Garfield's task to drive these forces out. The Colonel sat up all of one long 
night in January, 1862, posting himself as to the whereabouts of the enemy's 
forces. Early the next day he broke camp and pushed on, through many 
bands of skirmishers, until about noon he came upon the main body of the op- 
posing army, five thousand strong, and heavily entrenched on a steep and rocky 
hill, fortified with twelve pieces of artillery, while Garfield had only eleven 
hundred men and a single cannon. In the face of these odds he bravely 
charged the blufl'". For five long hours the battle raged, with many advances 
and repulses, but in the end Garfield and his brave Boys in Blue made the 
valley ring with their shouts of victory as they pursued the flying foe. The 
state of Kentucky had been saved to the Union and Garfield had won the 
straps of a Brigadier. These are the words General Buell used when speaking 

15 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 

of this engagement in a general order : General Garfield's operations " have 
overcome formidable difficulties in the character of the country, the condition 
of the roads, and the inclemency of the season ; without artillery, they have in 
several engagements, terminating in the battle of Middle Creek on the loth 
inst., driven the enemy from his entrenched positions and forced him back 
into the mountains with the loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and 
many ot his men killed and captured. These services have called into action 
the highest qualities of a soldier, fortitude, perseverance and courage." 



-mm^ 



i6 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



At Ghickamauga 



IT was at Chickamauga, however, that the courage and ability of Garfield 
came to their true testing time. Under General Rosecrans in January, 
1863, out ot sixteen generals summoned in consultation with the com- 
mander, Garfield was the only one who advised an attack upon this place. 
All the other officers placed themselves on record in writing as being opposed 
to the movement. But Garfield had so carefully studied the situation, and 
in his paper favoring the advance laid down so many good arguments to show 
why he believed that success would rest with the Union arms, were the attack 
to be made, that Rosecrans decided to take his advice. The generals who 
doubted the wisdom of the attack severely criticised Garfield and held him 
accountable for what they termed a " rash and fatal movement." 

At a critical point 
in the progress of the 
battle General Rose- 
crans wrote an order 
that was not well un- 
derstood. Obeying it 
as he interpreted it, 
one of the generals 
opened a gap in the 
Union line. The foe 
rushed through this. 
The Union men were 
swept away like chaff. 
Rosecrans was hurled 




■ At Chickamauga " 



17 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 




aside and fled with a demoralized 
mass of troops toward Chattanooga. 
He thought at that time that he had 
lost the day, and that the prediction 
of the sixteen opposing generals that 
the battle would tiring him defeat was 
to be verified. Then Garfield begged 
Rosecrans to permit him to try to 
rallv the scattered and discouraged 
troops. To this Rosecrans finally 
consented and Garfield set off" on a 
ride full ot peril to relieve General 
Thomas, or " Old Pap " Thomas as 
he is tamiliarlv known in historv, who 
was struggling in what was a forlorn 
hope. Once (iarfield's horse was 
shot under him. The route lav 
through the woods and tangled paths, the unknown in front ot him and untold 
dangers lurking behind. He pressed on in the face of every difficulty and by 
his courage and energv prevented the rout from being what it might otherwise 
have been, one of the most ruinous and irretrie\'able defeats of the war. And 
he won something better, too ; he captured the citadel of General Thomas' 
heart. Not the least honor he won that day was a commission as Major- 
Cieneral. A little while afterward, (Jarfield was ordered to Washington to 
explain to President Lincoln some of the reasons for a difference which had 
arisen between Rosecrans and Stanton, the Secretary of War. So well did he 
do this that the tired and worried Presulent said he afterward untierstood 
the condition and needs of the Arni\ of the Cumberhuu! better than he ever 
had before. 



Rosecrans " 



^^& 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 




President Lincoln ' 



19 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



Still Stepping Upward 



Willi his military laurels tresh on his shoulders, General Garheld was 
now called to take a still higher place in behalf of the State he had so 
faithfully served and the Nation which was even then beginning to love 
him. While not yet thirty-one years of age, the people of the Nineteenth 
Congressional District of Ohio nominated Garfield to a place in the House of 
Representatives in Congress. Could there have been at that time a higher 
honor? What was his duty at that moment? Should he stay in the field or 
go to Washington to wage what might be fiercer battles in the halls of Congress? 
The young man settled the question by accepting the nomination and the election 
which followed. He sometimes doubted whether he had done the right thing 
or not, especially when " Old Pap " Thomas, having been placed in command 
of the Army of the Cumberland, wrote offering him the command of an army 
corps. This ambition President Lincoln defeated by telling the young Congress- 
man that his services would be seriously missed from the capitol should he yield 
and go back into the field. Believing that the greater good would be served 
by remaining in the House of Representatives, Garfield decided to refuse the 
kindly offer of (jeneral Thomas. The pages of the Conyressional (ilobe for 
those days and for many following years give ample proof how \aluable a 
public ser\'ant .Mr. Garfield was in those trying times. No imjiortant legisla- 
tion was considereti, but (iarfield was at its very forefront, in one way or another. 
Although as we ha\'e seen, he ne\'er took a course of study in law, as did many 
men of his day, he hati ne\-ertheless thoroughly mastered the subject by a plan 
of reading at once well laitl out and patiently carried throu^h ; so that he was 
able quickly to comprchentl the legal aspects of e\ery matter which came before 
Congress. Ihis of itself shows what the \outh of our times ma\ do in the 
way of self-education if they set themselves at work and staiui faithfully by 
their resolution to win. 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 




" The House of Representatives " 

It will be still further encouragement for those who are compelled to study 
at home or elsewhere in the private walks of life to read what Mr. Garfield once 
said about this way oi gaining an education. 

" A finished education," he declares, "is supposed to consist mainly of 
literary culture. The story of the Cyclops where the thunderbolts of Jove 
were fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully than 
those sturdy truths which are preaching to this generation in the wonders of 
the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron-mills, and in other 
innumerable industries which more than all other human agencies have made 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



our civilization what it is, and are destined to achieve wonders yet undreamed 
of. This generation is beginning to understand that education should not be 
forever divorced troni industry ; that the highest results can be reached only 
when science guides the hand of labor. With what eagerness and alacrity is 
industry seizing every truth of science and putting it into the harness." 

And Mr. Garfield was at that time a living proof of what self culture will do 
for a man. His home at Washington was a workshop, filled with the tools of 

his craft. The house was 
literally overrunning with 
books. The hunger of 
the boy did not seem even 
yet to have been satisfied. 
Scrap-books carefully 
made up of clippings 
chosen with a view to 
making his work more 
forceful, supplemented 
the stores of b o u n d 
volumes which his library 
contained. He also kept 
diaries which covered a 
wide range of political, 
religious and general 
knowledge. 

Through all the 
years when he was scr\ing 
the people so ably, he 
tells us in the course of a 
brief address, his conduct 
had ever been shaped 
by a determination to 
«-- "follow mv conviction 

Lorc. 




" His home at Washington " 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 




" The Senate of the United States " 
at whatever cost to my personal desires or ambitions." With this high standard 
always before him, could he fail to reach the very highest that is within the grasp 
ot any man ? 

And as if to prove the truth of this statement, honors came to Mr. Gar- 
field one after another with startling rapidity. From the lower House of 
Congress he was advanced to the Senate of the United States. This preferment 
came to him without any effort on his part ; it was really in the nature of a 
tribute paid to him by a grateful people, recognizing the service he had rendered 
to the State and Nation. 

Still more rapidly came a wealth of honor. There was yet much in store 
for the hero of the tow-path. 



23 



THE SrOR^' OF GARFIELD 




Chief Executive of the greatest Republic in the world 



24 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



The Presidency 



How did good old " Mother " Garfield, as she was known by everybody, 
ever come to say to her son six months before the great Chicago Con- 
vention of 1880, "James, you will be nominated for President next 
June." Had the gift of prophecy been bestowed upon her? Who knows? 

Be that as it may, the prediction came true and on the thirty-sixth ballot 
taken bv the Republican National Convention held in the city of Chicago in 
June, 1880, he was nominated for President of the United States, and by 
their ballots the people ratified this choice at the election held in the following 
November. 

What a wise choice this was, the story of Garfield's career up to that 
moment most amply testified. Canal-boy at sixteen. Graduate of Williams 
College. President ot Hiram College. Member of the State legislature. 
Soldier, rising from private to general. Member of the highest legislative 
body in the land, to which he was elected nine times in succession. Promoted 
to the Senate ot the United States. And at last chosen to the supreme office 
of Chief Executive of the greatest republic in the world. Is not the story one 
to make the pulses leap and the heart to bound ? 

And vet, through it all Mr. Garfield was alwavs the simple hearted, humble, 
vmassuming man. It is well worth while for us to think for a moment ot this 
side of that wonderful man's lite. At the National Capital the Garfields had 

25 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 

a plain, yet comfortable home. But the real home of the family was at Mentor, 
Ohio. Here we may see in its real beauty the home life of the President. 
The aged mother in that home held a place always sacred in its importance, 
for Mr. Garfield never forgot the debt of love and gratitude he owed to her. 
Next to her stood the wife, whose position was one of the most tender in 
all respects that could be thought of At the time when Mr. (iarfield 
assumed the Presidency there were four boys at the home in Mentor, 
Harry, James, who is now a member of the official household at Washing- 
ton, Irvin McDowell and ^Abram, named after the Abram of old who 
did so much toward breaking the way tor the new western home in his young 




The home in Mentor " 



THE SrORY OF GARFIELD 



manhood. This little group of boys 
had as its companion one bright, 
joyous girl friend in the person of 
beautiful Mollie Garfield, then just in 
her teens. In this ideal home love 
reigned supreme. Everybody who 
came to that quiet country retreat — 
and the name of those who tound their 
way thither was legion, — was made 
welcome. One visitor speaks about 
this in the following language: " In 
that eventful period for the Garfield 
household I failed to see that Gov- 





ernors, and Senators and Congressmen 
fared any better, or were treated with 
more courtesy, than common people." 
All were men, and as men were en- 
titled to, and received equal love and 
respect. In short, this was a home 
lite at once beautitiil and uplifting in 
all its influences. 




MoIIie ' 



27 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 



A Shadow Falling Over a Great Life 



IT seems sad that this bright picture should be marred by the touch of a 
shadow. Ought not the storv to stop just here, where everything is so 
peaceful and so cheery ? It would seem so; and so it might have been 
had not the hand of a half-crazed office-seeker been lifted to throw the shadow 
which blotted out all the sunshine. 




■The station of the Baltimore and Potoniac Railroad in Washington 
2S 



IHE STORY OF GARFIELD 




Charles Guiteau never was a strong 
man in any sense of the word. Lack- 
ing the mental balance which makes 
one a good citizen, he had been disap- 
pointed and made sour by his attempts 
to secure a position under the National 
Government to which he was not entit- 
led by any right whatever. 

Holding the President responsible 
for his failure to succeed in his plans, 
Guiteau followed Mr. Garfield to the 
station of the Baltimore and Potomac 
Railroad in Washington on the second 
of July, I 8 8 1 , as he was about to take a 
train for New York. While walking 
arm in arm with James G. Blaine, Secre- 
tary of State, the President heard the 
sharp crack of two pistol shots, fired in 
quick succession. Something stung him madly in the side. The next moment 
the President realized that he had been shot. Kind hands bore him away to 
the upper part of the station, where a hasty examination of the wound was 
made. It was found that the bullet had entered the body at a point which 
made recovery seem to be almost beyond the possible. No probe could reach 
it. No medicine, however powerful, could long delay the coming of the dreaded 
messenger of death. This the attending surgeon told Mr. Garfield. "You 
have only one chance, Mr. President," he said, as gently as he could. The 
President smilingly replied, " We will take that one chance. Doctor, and make 
the most of it." 

And what a brave fight he did make against the fearful odds ! Eighty 
long days the President fought the fateful wound. Anxious to do all that lay 
within their power to give nature a chance to do her best, the friends of the 
stricken Chief Executive removed him to Elberon, New Jersey, where the 



lames G. Blaine " 



29 



THE S J" O R ^' OF GARFIELD 

breezes were strengthening and helpful. But the battle -went against him and 
he was compelled to do what he never had done hetore, surrender to the toe. 
The iourne\' back to the National Capital was one long track, strewn with 
flowers and lined with men and women standing with bowed heads and tearlit 
eyes. Under the dome of the beautiful building in which he had served the 
country so manv years the martvred l-*resident lav in state tor several, days. 
Then the funeral cortege took its wav to Cleveland, Ohio, where the principal 
services were held. Here for the hrst time atter the tragedy the aged mother 
saw her son. An e\'e-witness says : 




Under the dome of the beautiful building in which he had served the country for sn ni.-iny years 
the martvred President lav in state" 



.1° 



THE STORY OF GARFIELD 

" A moment passed, when Mother Garfield arose and approaching the 
coffin, laid her hand upon the lid and stood for a short time in silent prayer, her 
companions remaming motionless around her!" 

Did It seem to any that all the strivings of this brave man through the 
years from boyhood on, had passed for nothing? Not so to this true and 
earnest Christian mother. She knew that the glory of such a life will last as 
long as time endures. And she was right. Not the State of Ohio alone; not 
simply the United States — the whole world caught the inspiration of the life 
of James A. Garfield and was carried forward toward higher and better things 
than had ever marked its progress in the days gone by. 

The National Government has erected at the entrance to the grounds of 
the Capitol a splendid monument to the hero of the humble life. The people 
of the whole country have united their contributions to make up a fund for the 
erection of a grand monument at Cleveland ; but the truest and best monument 
that stands anywhere to the memory of Garfield is the love which keeps his 
memory fresh in the hearts of men and women the wide world over. 




31 



AFH 13 >908 




' The national government has erected at the entrance to the grounds of the Capitol a splendid 
monument to the hero ot the humble lite " 



